Monday, November 19, 2018

Certain Songs #1375: Oasis – “Lyla” | Medialoper

Album: Don’t Believe The Truth
Year: 2005

Chances are, if you remember any Oasis song from the 2000s, it’s going to be this one, as it was their first single since “Go Let It Out” to make any dent on any U.S. charts. Sure, it was the just the Alternative charts, but still. Naturally, in the U.K. it went to number one, because of course it did.

Not just because it got some radio play, but also because it’s catchy as all fuck, a song that Noel Gallagher called their “poppiest thing since ‘Roll With It,’” and, honestly, one of the most straightforward and focused singles they’d ever released.

Anchored by a clanging, ringing guitar riff that did everything it possibly could to burrow itself directly into your cerebral cortex as well as a springy, bouncy beat from new drummer Zak Starkey — the Oasis equivalent of Jason Bonham drumming for Led Zeppelin — “Lyla” was all hook from the get-go, peaking every single time they got the the chorus.

Hey Lyla!
The stars about to fall
So what do you say, Lyla?
The world around us makes me
Feel so small, Lyla!
If you can’t hear me call
Then I can’t say, Lyla!
Heaven help you catch me if I fall!

That’s pretty much it, though: there’s a fun, disconcertingly random guitar break in the middle — Noel’s quick tribute to some of Pete Townshend’s guitar breaks on the early Who singles — and a breakdown at the end that builds and and builds until the song finally crashes into a wall.

Which was enough: for a long-time fan like me, a single like “Lyla” again rewarded the fact that I was still paying attention after all these years: there still was no sound in the world like a well-crafted Oasis song, and “Lyla” showed that they could still crank them out when they needed to.

Also, every single time the character of Lyla Garrity showed up on Friday Night Lights, I always quietly sang this song to myself.